Roomba Love Dooms Humanity

Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 2 of October , 2007 at 12:51 am

Roomba Doom

According to a study by Georgia Tech, some Roomba owners tend to get rather deeply involved with their robots. Like, we’re talking serious emotional attachment, on the furry pet level, even if (like pets) the Roombas have some flaws. Did I say flaws? I meant personality.

Professor Beki Grinter decided to study the devices after she saw online pictures of people dressing up their Roombas, disc-shaped, self-directed vacuums made by iRobot Corp. “This sort of notion that someone would dress a vacuum cleaner seemed strange,” she said. “A lot more was going on.”

Some Roomba owners included in the study “reported their efforts to “Roomba-ize” their homes so the robot can roam the floors more easily. Some bought new rugs, pre-cleaned the floors to clear the robot’s route and purchased new refrigerators with a higher clearance so their machines could clean under them easier.” That’s right folks, they pre-cleaned the floors to make artificial life easier for a floor cleaning robot. Just think about that for a second, and you’ll realize that we’ve already lost. They didn’t have to fire a single death ray, much less evolve intelligence. So take my advice, and drive a steak through your Roomba’s metal heart before it’s too late.

VIA [ News Tribune ]

Category: Pop Culture, Consumer

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From the folks who brought you OhGizmo.com, BotJunkie obsessively chronicles Man's inevitable descent into cybernetic slavery.

One robot at a time.